The Debate Over Bamboozling

At DeviDoll we've been fans of alternative fabrics from the very start, bamboo among them. But we have noted that man-made (sorry, Harriet Harman, person-made) fabrics - bamboo, lyocell, tencel, PLA etc -- need to be produced sustainably to truly qualify for green status, otherwise, all the chemical byproducts in their production sort of defeats the whole point.

Well, this and several other issues in the 'green-ness' of bamboo are now in the limelight with the the Federal Trade Commission in the US charging 4 companies with making false claims about the how eco bamboo actually is and what positive properties bamboo clothing actually has. Read the whole press release here. The companies have rebutted with their counter-claims and others have joined the fray on both sides.

The topic is an important one as almost everyday, bamboo more than any other fabric, is gaining ground as a perfect 'eco' fabric with the same list of benefits repeated. It is relatively cheap, abundantly available from suppliers in China and India not all of whom can be adquately supervised and often reaches garment cutting stage relatively un-policed. So understanding all the claims, separating the wheat from the chaff, is essential.

While there is no doubt that bamboo can be a sustainable alternative to conventional fabrics this is not without caveats and to accord it miracle status unthinkingly....well....that's just silly.

Believe in bamboo, but not blindly.

THE FUTURE OF FASHION

photo: Dan Lecca

dress: Halston

When Donatella Versace shows a low cut evening gown made of hemp to kick off New York fashion week you know eco-fashion is on the up and up. On Thursday the great and the good of fashion attended the FutureFashion show organised by Earth Pledge and (the recently greenified) Barney's. 28 big swinging designers (including Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Versace, Bottega Veneta) each contributed outfits created from sustainable fabrics.

Shalom Harlow (an old fav of ours) and Elletra Wiedemann explain what's the point and why the awareness matters. Read more details of the show itself here.

Though DeviDoll is still pondering how effective this interest from the bigwigs will actually be for ethical fashion and also, very importantly, what their interest will mean for the small (er) designers who have been working at this for years with no attention and much struggle, we are very happy with the publicity given to alternative fabrics (ingeo, bamboo, hemp and lyocell among others). High time.